Tag: Christmas

It’s Christmastime!! Everybody loves this time of year. Or hates it. Depending on whether they are at home enjoying their own Christmas tree, mugs of cocoa, and family, or they are out shopping.

People shop all year. We all have things we need to pick up week to week–food, supplies, clothing. So what is it about shopping for Christmas that makes some put on their Belligerent Hats and shove through like nutcases? I suppose we’ll never know. I’ve always thought shopping for gifts should bring out the best in people, not the worst. So when I am out this time of year, I put on my biggest smile, and even when someone accidentally-on-purpose heels me with his or her cart for some imagined slight, I offer kind words. I may not think them, but I speak them. You know what a big believer I am in paying it forward.

It always makes my experience a little bit better, being kind in the face of all that irritation. Hopefully, it makes the experience of those who come in contact with me better, too. I am, after all, an optimist.

I’ve taken a very long Christmas break. Not from homeschooling, never that. From being KT.

And I don’t mind.

I’ve focused on my Littles this past month and it has been amazing. Stellar.

We only have a 3-week school session between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, and every year we do something fun for those three weeks. We chuck the regular schedule and learn about one thing for that session. The first year it was Christmas Around the World. The next it was Victorian Christmas. Last year we learned about… Dinosaurs (I ran out of ideas for the Christmas theme). This year, we had the joy of learning all about pirates. I ordered four new books from Amazon and we pored over them every day, learning about Henry Morgan, Anne Bonny, Black Bart, and Blackbeard. We sailed the Seven Seas while making a Pirate Scrapbook full of biographies and ship vocabulary. We practiced our yearly Christmas play—A Pirate’s Christmas. We simply had fun.

I don’t want my kids to look back and wish they’d had the opportunity to do school plays. I don’t want them going out into the world without any experience in public speaking. So every year when my extended family gets together for Christmas, Middle and Little do a play, complete with props, lines, costumes, and Christmas songs.

It is hard to find plays for just two kids. Usually I end up writing them or adapting bigger plays for just two characters. A Pirate’s Christmas was our most involved play yet, with lots of lines for both boys. The basic plot was two pirates aboard a ship fearing they wouldn’t get to celebrate Christmas because their captain didn’t believe in celebrating. When they got the news that Cap’n would be ashore for five days at Christmas time, they decorated the ship (while singing Need a Little Christmas) and made gifts for each other. When the time came to exchange gifts, they discovered that each had made a small gift for Cap’n, because, as one said, “Christmas is a time for everyone. It’s the one time of year when we should all get to be happy.” The lesson, of course, is that giving is a joy and we shouldn’t shun it just because someone is mean or doesn’t have the Christmas spirit. It was a hit on Christmas Eve. The Littles did a beautiful job.

Giving. What fun. I also never want my Littles to look back and think their mama was too busy to give them her time, especially during Christmas. So if I have to leave off being KT for a while, I’m all for it. They’re still talking about what a fun unit Pirates was and how much fun they had putting on the play. Will they remember it specifically in 10 years? Maybe not. But they’ll remember their mama was always willing to put aside her time for them, to put them first before all others, and to have fun with them while there was fun to be had.

Now that I’m back, check out my new page, YA Book Reviews. I’ll be adding more reviews as time permits. I hope you take some of my suggestions and get your own littles reading.

Now what about you? What did you give this Christmas that you’re grateful for?

Love wins,

KT

P.S. We used the following books for the pirates unit:

Pirates by John Matthews

Pirates Most Wanted by John Matthewes

DK Eyewitness Pirates

Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter’s Companion by Captain William Lubber and Dugald A. Steer